The Third Life of Agnès Varda

About

The photographer, filmmaker and visual artist Agnès Varda, who died in 2019 at the age of ninety, is considered one of the most influential creative personalities of our time, who reinvented herself again and again throughout her life. An extensive solo exhibition at silent green is now dedicated to her third and last creative period as a visual artist.

Agnès Varda is regarded as one of the most influential creative personalities of our time - the photographer, filmmaker and visual artist, who died in 2019 at the age of ninety, left behind a life's work spanning more than six decades, in which the pioneer of modern film constantly reinvented herself. Her last creative period - her "third life as a young artist", as she called it herself - is still far less known and less accessible than the numerous films she directed before.

At silent green, the most comprehensive solo exhibition in Germany to date of this last creative period, which Varda began at the age of 75 at the Venice Biennale, shows photographs, films and video formats that Varda combined to create cross-media installations

As a world premiere, Une Cabane de cinéma: La Tente de Sans toit ni loi / A Cinema Shack: The Tent of Vagabond  are set up exhibited since May 6 on our lawn, a "cinema tent" made of 35-mm film strips from Varda's film, refuge inspired by that very film. The second work is Le Tombeau de Zgougou dans sa cabane / Zgougou's Grave in Its Shack, a video installation in a shack built from recycled materials that takes visitors to the grave of Varda's beloved cat on the island of Noirmoutier.

Besides the main exhibition in the Betonhalle and the two cinema shacks on the lawn, a very special installation will also be on display in our Kuppelhalle from July 10 to 20: Hommage aux Justes de France / Homage to the Righteous of France, a work commemorating the "Justes", those often forgotten who saved the lives of Jews during the German occupation of France, risking their own lives in the process. In 2007, the work entered the Panthéon in Paris and has since become an important memorial to the Second World War.

From June 11 till  July 17, a film series at Arsenal Cinema will accompany the exhibition, showing selected films by Varda that touch on the exhibition motifs.

In addition, the exhibition will be supplemented by talks and workshops.. For example, a Super 8 film workshop by filmmaker Dagie Brundert follows in Varda's footsteps. A children's workshop with filmmaker Maria Mohr and film facilitator Stefanie Schlüter is dedicated to Varda's joy of media play and experimentation, as the participants try out the practice of collecting and relating photography, moving images and sounds.

Opening times

Monday – Friday: 2 pm–8 pm; Saturday + Sunday: noon – 8 pm

Vernissage: 9.6., 6pm